Iqalluk (Salmon); Nimruyaq (Willow); Petrushki- Beach Lovage;
Willow and Salmon might seem like unlikely pairings, until you think of seasonality of those plant and fish relatives.
We are having a good start to the season with our Salmon runs so far. I helped process some of the first reds of the season and took home four bags of the fish bones left over from filleting :). A bit daunting for me, but I wanted to try to make some bone broth with them and I was sad to waste so much of the fish.
I took them home and cleaned out the gills and rinsed the heads in fresh water. For the broth, I sauteed some celery and carrots and onions chopped into big chunks in butter in my big stock pot. I added the four heads and bones and tails and poured around 24 ozs of water. I also added all the vegetable trimmings, onion and garlic skins, herb stems, lemon rinds, and other soup stock fillings that I keep stored in my freezer. I also added some dried Nasquluk.
The stock boiled and simmered down into a lovely broth. I strained everything out and froze some and used the rest throughout the week for soups.
One of those soups I made for an elder session at the museum. I made a carrot, celery, and leek base with some dried herbs and also went out to Chiniak for some fresh petrushki- beach lovage/beach parsley. I added the fish bone broth and I also added chunks of the Salmon meat to the soup. I served it with some crackers and I got an ‘elder stamp of asirtuq (it is good)’ and smiles. That is a GOOD feeling!
I forgot to take pictures of the soup I made for elder session, but I did take pictures of the foraging mission out to Chiniak for Petrushki and the feast on the beach that I did with some friends. We got a nice group out there for a “forage n’ feast” haha. Some good wholesome time well spent. I wrapped my halibut up with the petrushki and some sour cream in tin foil and roasted it by the fire. A bit overcooked but it made me happy :) I also brought a loaf of sourdough bread to share. Others brought salmon and cod and homemade “kimchiKraut” (so good!!). We shared some wine and were out there for hours, perfectly content, living our best lives (it didn’t even rain?)!
This past week, I also did some work with Nimruyaq- Willow. This is a very Big medicine tree that I’ve wanted to work with for a while. The inner bark of the willow contains salicin, which is pain relieving and anti-inflammatory. Asprin contains the compound acetylsalicylic, which can be extracted from salicin using some sort of complicated process that I couldn’t really follow haha.
I went out with Coral to harvest a whole willow tree. Once you start peeling the trunk of a tree, it will die. So I needed to find a plan for every single part of the tree.
Outer Bark
Some of the bark I peeled intact (outer and inner bark) and made willow bark baskets.
Some of this I simmered with water for making cordage , changing the water periodically and saving the liquid for tanning hides later.
Inner bark (this is the part with the medicine)
Some of the bark I scraped off the top layer and then peeled it off the trunk and cut into strips and dried
Some of those inner bark pieces, I cut into little squares and dried them,
Some of the inner bark I peeled like string cheese and put them in two different containers. I covered one with olive oil (to make a salve) and the other with vodka (to make a tincture).
Trunk- I found a friend who does wood carving and gave him several pieces of the trunk to carve.
Leaves- I dried some of these for seasoning and I also fried some up fresh, and they were actually really yummy and sweet like this!